


how the ocean healed us

by JulyB96



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, i feel percy isn't developed to the reader in some ways and this is me developing it, this is sad but also happy idk it's not the best but
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-18
Updated: 2015-08-18
Packaged: 2018-04-15 11:29:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4605033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JulyB96/pseuds/JulyB96
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Here, at the very bottom of the world, underneath the waves, was the most beautiful world you could ever imagine. In its vastness there was nothing but peace, cliffs of ice not only reached miles above the sea, but below it as well. Whales ten times his size swam by, giving him nothing but a questioning gaze, and even they seemed to small in comparison to ocean down here.</p><p>Happy Birthday Percy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	how the ocean healed us

 

He came here when he wanted to think.

       _Antarctica,_ he thought, _funny place for a son of Poseidon to hide_. Except, it wasn’t funny. It did make sense, nothing but ocean and ice and aquatic creatures—a perfect place for the son of the sea actually. As for hiding, maybe that is what was funny, the fact that he found the need to hide at all.

      One day, a few months after the war, he’d had an episode, a really bad one. People were so scared of him, Annabeth had tears in her eyes, if there was such a thing as Olympic Police, he probably would’ve been taken in and locked away. So, naturally, he had ran. Into the bay, out to the ocean, through the Atlantic, and only after he passed the tip of South America did he realize, he’d gone to far. It probably would’ve been a good idea to go back, but there had been something about where he was, about how large it had all been, that made him push onward. 

For someone who was able to control waves, create hurricanes, and even man a pirate ship alone, he’d realized that there was so much of the ocean he’d never actually seen. Honestly, he could have swim down to the darkest depths, gazed upon centuries old treasure, even move the very foundations of entire continents, and he…hadn’t even tried. That day was the day he started coming here, monthly, sometimes weekly even. He felt guilty, yes, but it’s how it made him feel that was so very addicting.

Here, at the very bottom of the world, underneath the waves, was the most beautiful world you could ever imagine. In its vastness there was nothing but peace, cliffs of ice not only reached miles above the sea, but below it as well. Whales ten times his size swam by, giving him nothing but a questioning gaze, and even they seemed so small in comparison to the ocean down here. When the sun hit the water just right, it all seemed to explode in vibrancy, the ice shining like diamonds, the water a dazzling sapphire…but even then the sun could only reach so far, and it all faded into darkness the farther out he seemed to go. Apollo couldn’t even conquer the depths and that is what made him crave it’s company.

Compared to the land, where he was deemed so grandeur and great, where he had people looking up to him everywhere he went—and don’t get him wrong, he didn’t take it for granted, he was a hero as much as the rest of them. He just wished people knew, that being a hero, isn’t exactly what everyone expected it to be. It was glory and gore, but he had noticed people focused more often on the _glory_ , then the gore. Well, anyway, compared to the land, this…well this ocean wasn’t even grand, it was something of Herculean proportions and it…it made him feel so very small.

      It forced him to be tiny, so tiny that those titles he had earned, those expectations, those stories and admirers, those episodes that made him itch and sweat and scream, well they all just had to wash away. Here he could be Percy, just Percy, and not Percy Jackson. Here he could play with orcas and penguins, swim next to blue whales if they were looking for company, and he found out they had some of the wisest words to say. Whales, who would’ve thought? They told him secrets of the sea, of the depths, of the universe. His powers grew and grew, he learned to form icebergs and break them down again, learned to ride the waves with nothing but his feet. Leopard seals taught him how to swim faster, elephant seals taught him how to maximize his force, and penguins, they were the biggest chatter boxes.

      It was a few months into his hideaway that it’s magic bubble seemed to have finally cracked. He’d had a night terror and when he awoke, his knuckles were white, grasping onto Riptide with such ferocity it scared him. First thing that came to mind: Antarctica. Out the door, to the beach, and he was almost there until someone shouted his name. They were so close, how had he not heard them? The answer to his question came a second later as he saw who it was. 

Annabeth.

She was in her sweats, bed head obvious, with tears in her eyes. Immediately, worry shot through him like a bullet, but before he could even get a word out she was shouting. 

       _Why?_ She said. _Where do you go? Do you think I don’t notice? Hours upon hours your gone. First it was every month, now every week! Don’t you think I panic too? Sometimes I freak out and no one is here to hold me, Percy! I know, I know no one is there to hold you either but I would! I would…if you didn’t leave all the time. Where are you going? I can’t take it anymore…I can’t._

     Shock, is what he felt, but guilt too, because she was right. Annabeth was always right. He couldn’t retaliate, couldn’t argue, his throat seemed to close up and drown everything he wanted to say. Instead, he held out his hand. Her eyes went from it, to him, and back again. Hesitantly she walked over to him, but her grip was firm and steady, so he plunged underneath the waves without a second thought. The currents took them far, far from land and soon, they were alone, cloaked in darkness. It was so very familiar, enough to make him pull her closer, securing his hands around her back.

      When they got there, her held her at arms length and let her take it all in for herself. The crystal caves, the water currents, the swooping shapes of icebergs underneath the waves, he even took her above, showed her how far it stretched in all directions. When he’d finished, her questioning gaze appeared and she repeated her question from before. Why?

     Something inside him must have cracked, just like all the icebergs he’d broken apart, because it all tumbled out. It flew from his mouth into the water and echoed of the ice, coming back to slap him hard. How it made him feel, why he was here, why he left so much, what he had learned, and why he had came here tonight. At the end of it, she was giving him the look, the one that people gave him after his episodes, the one his mother gave him after the war, the one he was desperately trying to avoid.

_Don’t look at me like that, please._

 

_Like what, Seaweed Brain?_

 

_Like I’ve lost my mind._

 

_…People look at me like that too._

      He didn’t know what to say, because he knew they did, he saw them. After awhile, he did the only thing he knew how to do here. Think. Think and breathe and let it all wash away. He showed her what he had learned, took her through sunlight caverns, introduced her to the seals and the penguins and the whales. It had surprised both of them, when the whale had made a remark about the world and Annabeth answered in pursuit of his knowledge. She’d slapped her hand over her mouth, shock clearly in her eyes, and looked at Percy for an answer, but he’d been of the same state. 

      The whale took in their reaction and simply continued the conversation, explaining that he was wise, and figured out telepathy long ago. _Orcas on the other hand_ , he’d said, _were to violent to talk to just anyone._ Oh, and don’t even get him started on sperm whales. Annabeth eyes had lit up and they’d followed him around for close to an hour. She couldn’t seem to get enough of it and with her there, it still felt just as vast, except this time, it was just us at the bottom of the world.

 That’s how _he_ went there to think, turned into _they_ went there to think.

      They danced in the water for hours and held one another when necessary. Raced the penguins and rode the waves, and every time a blue whale crossed their path, they had to stop. Annabeth was mesmerized by every thought that came from their head to hers. It wasn’t long before he noticed the swift slopes and curved shapes of icebergs in her building sketches. He helped her draw swirls into cliffs and when she asked him to create her sketches from the ice, he smiled wide and hugged her close as the building rose from the ocean. The day Chiron had called both of them to the Big House, and showed them an article titled, “Mysterious Iceberg Houses Appear,” they had laughed and laughed until their ribs hurt and tears streamed down their cheeks.

 Percy couldn’t remember the last time his tears had been happy, but he did know he sure as hell did miss it.

      Currently, he was there in his hideaway, thinking. Thinking while he held her in his arms. Thinking while he listened to their breathing, their heartbeats, so in unison with one another. Thinking as he felt the currents surround them, just the two of them, there at the bottom of the world, the ocean never-ending in all directions. Most people would find it terrifying, but to them, nothing could be safer. It was serene and quiet and _free._

      A beeping sound began to come out of nowhere and he jumped. Annabeth gave a chuckle, pulling away to look at her watch. _Oh,_ she said and smiled at him wide. He raised an eyebrow in question.

  _Happy Birthday Seaweed Brain._

      He blinked once, twice, and then he was smiling and laughing and kissing her all at the same time. As they floated there, embracing one another, letting their worries wash away in peace, blocking the entire world out of their hideaway, he thought, _yeah, this time it really is happy._

 

**Author's Note:**

> this is something different and def not my best writing but i would appreciate reviews!! i just wanted to do something for percy's birthday and write more about his connection to the ocean


End file.
